Category Archives: Employment

Telecommuting: Everyone Wins Work From Home Cloud Computing Options

Cloud computing is all the rage

If you have the chance to work from home would you? Many people would say yes, and with good reason. You can make your own hours, dress how you want, be your own boss and pretty much you have life in the palm of your hand. Now let’s come crashing back down to reality. Cloud computing has opened a true work from home opportunity. Many small to midrange businesses have adopted cloud computing as part of their IT department and company structure. What does this does mean for some is a work from home opportunity. Not one where you call the shots, but one that lets you telecommute to work every day.

Opening the door

Any computer becomes a mobile office. Employers host the files, programs and other data needed to make your work, well work. Just log in with your user name and password much like you would an email account and you now have access to all your business applications and other data. With the ability for many of these applications to be run at once without any slowdown the ease of use and the simple design of cloud computing means anyone can use it. Yet if it is so easy, what factors are slowing down the progress of cloud computing?

Bandwagon jumpers

Have it now, the on demand service that cloud computing offers, no more needing the IT department to turn something on or wait for someone to get a program up and running for you. Convenience, work whenever you want to, want to work at 10 at night then go ahead. Get everyone involved; being able to network over multiple networks you’re able to pool resources without any limits. So these seem like great pluses, where is the issue? Security, new regulations will be needed to keep security in check and personal information safe. Servers that host the data will need to be regulated in some way for legal liability. Because of security concerns that range from the simple to major concerns such as person records. Are these fears real? Not real enough to slow down the projected increase of money dedicated into cloud computing from last year to this year.

Who is doing what

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Intel, HP and SAP all have one major thing in common. They are devoting large budgets and high hopes into cloud computing projects. Each one in return is hosting some form of cloud. Many offer the service for free (paid if you want more space) for a limited amount of space. What does this mean? It is like being able to go to the candy store and eat the candy before you decide to buy it. Giving small to midsize companies a chance on seeing how well cloud computing can work for them. As well as giving the common user a chance to be able to file away all those countless pictures of the Christmas party.

Cloud Accounting And Telecommuting

If you own a small business, you may still be using a spreadsheet or the traditional pen and paper method to maintain accounting records. You may also have been using over-the-shelf accounting software. The above alternatives, no matter how popular they may be, are really outdated and old-fashioned. Most of these systems are prone to error and can result in many problems. Thus, an alternative solution has been developed to replace the old accounting systems. Today, more and more businesses are turning to cloud accounting systems to fulfil their needs. Cloud accounting is available to anybody who has an Internet connection; it is easy to use, and saves both time and money.

Although a spreadsheet or pen-and-paper solution is still the cheapest alternative when it comes to keeping financial records, cloud accounting software is not expensive either. There are various cloud accounting suppliers that can offer their services for as low as $19.95 per month. There is no need to install a copy of the software on your office computer and you need not pay for licenses. Aside from the cost savings, cloud computing also saves time, thereby allowing you to concentrate on your business operations.

Cloud accounting can be accessed safely anytime and anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. It is able to automatically back up all your accounting data daily, and this backup data is usually kept on multiple servers. Therefore, you won’t have to worry if your office computer crashes—your data is safe in a remote location. Because you can access your accounting data through an Internet browser, you can be anywhere in the world and still be able to check your financial reports and transactions. Cloud accounting is simple to use and is very similar to the traditional accounting software you’ve become accustomed to. Most cloud accounting applications are convenient to use and can be accessed quickly.

Many businesses are now geared towards telecommuting, and having a virtual office is expected to be the future of work. Large businesses have started to take steps in this direction, and are now starting to build remote work groups. The general public is also becoming interested and curious about telecommuting’s advantages, as the technology of remote access continues to redefine the concept of an office. Because of the advancement of technologies in the fields of video conferencing, instant messaging, voice-over-IP, and virtual private networks, it is now possible to create a virtual office that can connect computers remotely through broadband Internet.

Telecommuting has its advantages for both employees and employers. Firstly, it allows each employee to observe flexible work schedules, while for the employer, it means you can save on salaries and infrastructure expenses. In general, telecommuting employees are only paid 70 percent of what is paid to non-virtual workers.

Statistics also show that fuel costs can be reduced by as much as 20 percent when an employee telecommutes once a week. Aside from the fuel savings one can gain by telecommuting, it also reduces environmental hazards. It is the relentless advance of technology that is paving the way for the creation of virtual offices, and HR managers are realizing that employees do not need face-to-face interaction to do a job well. In order to retain talented employees, businesses are now finding it necessary to become amenable to telecommuting. Furthermore, telecommuting has the potential to reduce the conflicts which can arise when workers work together in a traditional office environment. It has also made it possible for employers to scout for employees globally, and they are finding that talented employees are not only confined in a certain community or country. Employers now can outsource their operations to such workers across the globe.

Gussy Up Your Employment with Cloud Computing

With reports of 50,000 new jobs being launched in cloud computing/IT in Los Angeles alone, it’s official: the employment iron is hot. Strike into the fray with a sophisticated grasp of how cloud computing can improve your approach and your potential company.

Chasing versus cultivating. The sphere of cloud computing’s involvement with the hunt for a great job is populated with two contingents: those who seek to “chase” literal cloud computing positions, and those who opt to “cultivate” a reputation for their own cloud expertise. The former group, the “chasers,” are currently enjoying a bumper crop of positions as consultants and providers of cloud. However, the well of such posts may run dry as the demand for them begins to slow. To best incorporate the cloud into your work life, emulating the “cultivators” — nurturing your reputation as a cloud professional, even at your current workplace — is vital. Doing so positions you at the vanguard of the cloud in your own occupational backyard, a sage move toward solidifying your value and enhancing your cachet.

Earn cloud skills that pay the bills. You will require more than a well-stocked DropBox and regular reading of CloudTweaks (which remains highly recommended, nevertheless) to claim cloud computing proficiency at your workplace. Consider your genius in relevant, related skill sets that can support your protestations of cloud excellence. How smoothly can you cajole your co-workers (heck, even your own family) into taking up the cloud along with you? Can you rattle off the five most essential new cloud applications on demand? Can you demonstrate to your boss how participation in cloud can boost the business, offset risk and encourage reward? And can you serve as a cloud architect, proposing a structure that safely yet profitably involves your company in cloud? Until you can answer such questions with ease, hold back on tooting your cloud computing horn too loudly.

Before you head up to cloud, get grounded. Many employers will grow annoyed with staff or applicants that tout reams of information on cloud computing without a mastery of the business itself. Ground your excellence in cloud know-how with equally specific respect for the industry or enterprise at hand. Going for a position in healthcare, for example? Research the business vein of that hospital or facility, then base what you can offer via the cloud on that information. Tailoring your genius to a particular gig is doubly impresses: it educates and inspires confidence all at once.

Cloud Computing Certification

Market Prediction: Cloud Technology to offer 14 Million jobs by 2015

Cloud computing certification has a lot in store in terms of future job creation. It is anticipated that cloud computing technology will lead to a generation of an estimated 14 million novel job opportunities across the world in the span of the coming three years. Surprising enough, the scope of the fresh jobs may extend beyond the IT sector. The estimates are an outcome of research carried out by IDC funded by the Microsoft Corporation. Fourteen million expected jobs sure is a promising number in itself, but when stacked against the current volume of the available global workforce (a little greater than 3 billion to be exact) it equals a shy half a percent – a mere droplet compared against the pail.

It is worth to note that only 1.18 million of the anticipated lot of 14 million jobs will be hosted in the North America region. The lion’s share of the opportunities will be available in the budding markets. A hefty 10 million of the jobs will arise in the Asia Pacific region, India and China. The primary reason for this remains the mammoth size of the region’s human resource pool – about 1.3 promising personnel in India and China alone, as per findings of the report.

Nevertheless, it’s a great beginning since job conception at any scale is equally valuable. The efficacy of cloud technology as a positive force is further augmented by the projections of this particular study. Furthermore, the study serves an eye-opener for those who consider cloud computing as a job terminator. The technology, in fact, is bound to boost the number of available jobs, and that too across the globe, all the way through ventures of varying functionalities and sizes. After all, the beauty of the cloud lies in the actuality that rising markets and small organizations all have access to similar benefits offered by the technology just like any large scale enterprise or developed economy.

So what genre of jobs are we talking about here? It figures out that the majority of the created jobs will be related to the field of IT, including cloud architectural designers, integration experts etc. Allied domains, such as smart phone application development sector, continue to make use of cloud technology for delivering better products and entrepreneurial spin offs. App Economy has confirmed that the smart app development sector alone has resulted in the creation of 466,000 jobs in the United States. Application developers and software engineers are rapidly designing apps that make use of cloud technology. An inevitable consequence of the above is an increased demand for cloud professionals around the globe. IDC advocates that apart from strictly technical roles, cloud technology and cloud computing certification will lead to expansion and resulting increased demand of human resource in finance, sales, marketing, service, production and administrative departments of various ventures.

Folks at IDC further extrapolate that ingenuity and innovation in cloud technology might lead to monetary results as large as $1.1 trillion per annum in the coming 36 months. The firm validates that during the last year, IT cloud service providers made it possible for corporations of all sizes around the globe to secure more than $400 billion in sales, in addition to the 1.5 million brand new jobs.

The Prospects Of Finding Employment In The Cloud Computing Field

Employers, who are looking for new hires, are searching for people with basic foundations in technology. Aside from that, they also want that applicant to possess people and business skills. Thus, if you’re somebody who’s trying to find work, you must ensure that you have these skills. The modern office environment is being invaded by mobile and cloud technologies. Therefore, job hunters must be familiar with such technologies to increase their chances of being hired.

A cloud expert is one who is familiar with Platform-as-a-service because it is utilized to develop applications running in the cloud environment. Since more and more companies are expected to move to the clouds, it doesn’t hurt if an applicant knows PaaS because such knowledge and experience are important to these organizations. If you’re an employee seeking work in an administrative capacity in a cloud technology provider, your knowledge of Puppet will definitely increase your chances of being hired. Puppet is an application which aids organizations in getting administrative work done over a centralized environment.

On the other hand, if you’re searching work as an applications developer, it pays if you have knowledge in mobile applications such as iOS and Android mobile platforms. Knowledge of HTML5 is also being required because it is now considered as a mobile device industry standard. You can search for training courses online for such new technologies so you can add those new skills in your resume.

In the long run, you must have a basic foundation in technology so that you can easily adapt to new technologies because eventually these new technologies existing today will be old technologies in the near future. It pays to know real basic technical stuff like how the network switch or processor works, as well as how an application works. Knowledge of the physical infrastructures currently being implemented in data centers is also a great plus. A working knowledge of the basics will surely differentiate you from the other applicants.

Aside from technical skills, you must possess excellent people and business skills. Although imbibing these skills can take a long time, people who work team players are always welcome in any organization. The skills are your passport to your new job because employers will be confident that you will try to resolve every customer with their problems and that you can clearly communicate the IT protocols to your new company because you will be working with other employees with various levels of IT competencies.

The demand for people with cloud computing knowledge will steadily grow as more and more business organizations are trooping to the clouds. Because of this potential demand, there are institutions which have started offering cloud computing certifications in order to boost the chances of job applicants. Some of these organizations are even offering cloud computing training for free.

Cloud computing skills are being demanded by many business organizations but not much of these applicants are equipped with such skills. In the United States of America, Canada, and some countries in Europe, many businesses are posting job advertisements. There are crucial positions being offered by these companies for people who have the IT, business, and people skills. However, these open positions aren’t currently being filled because a lot of people don’t have the requirement skills. Thus, it pays for an individual to exert all efforts to upgrade his skills so that the new job openings will eventually be filled.

Cloud Computing Cracks Job Crisis Conundrum?

As our country continues its procession toward the 2012 presidential election, the nation’s employment woes continue to vex communities and rank as the first concern on the platforms of pundits and candidates. In my opinion, cloud computing should definitely elbow the job crisis on the docket of relevant issues. Recent reports have proven the cloud’s ability to vitaminize American job markets for the long haul, and not solely in IT.

A newly released report and infographic show how cloud computing will create 20,000 new jobs in the City of Brotherly Love, many of them in the information technology sector. Philadelphia will also enjoy the cloud’s “spillover” effect, in that several other job categories (including education, retail, and healthcare) will also experience job growth as a result of the cloud’s influence on efficiency.

Skeptics might blow off this news as a silly Philly phenomenon. Yet the cloud actually stands to amplify jobs worldwide, by up to 30% in 2015. Stateside, an array of major metropolises will enjoy this growth, from perennial powerhouse New York City to the beleaguered Detroit and Washington, D.C. (in which the cloud will magnify its employment presence by 18% and 19.3%, respectively). These figures encompass both public and private or hybrid jobs, further indication that this growth isn’t just a niche venture.

How exactly is the cloud accomplishing such heroic job creation figures? The Sand Hill Group recently published a study gauging the specifics on cloud’s employment potential, which Forbes elaborated on. It found that cloud computing has a brilliant propensity to empower efficiency for even the riskiest type of companies, venture capitals, who relish the cloud for its slashing of start-up costs and seemingly astronomical annual growth potential. The cloud also wins brownie points for enabling small businesses (the lifeblood of American employment) to launch quickly, due to minuscule required investment to get started, and elevating them shoulder to shoulder with big businesses from the get-go.

So we’re clear: cloud computing could potentially remedy American unemployment, at least to a sizable degree. But is this some esoteric hope that escapes the government’s ability, or willingness, to implement it? Refreshingly, no. U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra recently authored a Federal Cloud Computing Strategy report, detailing how Capitol Hill could capitalize on the technology to improve its own efficiency. If the cloud can improve governmental operations in-house, perhaps the Obama administration will see fit to try the cloud on for size nationwide.

We’d love to hear from you! What are measures you think our gov’t should take to more fully embrace cloud computing and its potential?

Cloud Computing to Fuel Job Creation in High Tech Industries, says London School of Economics

Not long back I had written about a UK study where Chief Information Officers (CIOs) had described cloud computing as having had the biggest positive impact on businesses in 2011 (See: Cloud Computing “Most Positive for Businesses”: UK Study ). Now another study, this time from the venerable London School of Economics, speaks about what to expect in the future.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (informally the London School of Economics or LSE) is one of the most famous and highly-reputed social sciences institutions in the world. Therefore, when it comes out with a report attesting to the job creation potential of cloud computing, it gets coverage all around the world.

The report, titled Modelling (UK spelling) the Cloud and commissioned by Microsoft, looked at the projected economic impact of cloud computing on the aerospace and smartphone services industries in the UK, the US, Germany and Italy from 2010-2014. The study utilized a combination of public domain and interview data, industry provided data and proprietary research by the authors Jonathan Liebenau, Patrik Karrberg, Alexander Grous and Daniel Castro of the LSE. Research was conducted under the auspices of LSE-Enterprise, the business services and knowledge transfer unit of the institution.

The two industries covered by the study, smartphone services and aerospace, can be considered as suitable proxy for all high tech industries affected by cloud computing because of their differential rates of growth. As expected, smartphones, which make extensive use of Internet-based services, are affected considerably more as compared to traditional high tech manufacturing like aerospace. That is why, in the UK from 2010 through 2014, the rate of growth in cloud-related jobs in the smartphone services sector is set to be 349%, compared to 52% growth in aerospace. Corresponding figures for Germany, Italy and the US are expected to be 280% vs 33%, 268% vs 36% and 168% vs 57% respectively.

Demand for skilled personnel will also result in higher-than average salaries, said the report. It estimates that IT facilities managers and IT core administrators will be in the $70k-120,000 salary bracket in the US and £40k-60,000 in the UK (with Germany featuring an estimated 95% of UK salary levels, Italy with 80% of UK levels). Moreover, there is little chance of layoffs due to cloud migration, with most companies expected to invest in retraining staff. Additionally, several indirect employment opportunities in the form of construction and maintenance are also expected.

Speaking on the report, John Vassallo, VP of EU Affairs at Microsoft, said, “Cloud computing and the explosion in access to technology is impacting the character of work across industries, generating new skills demands, employment and growth opportunities. LSE’s study underscores these phenomena using rigorous economic analysis that forecasts growth as a result of the transition to cloud technologies in two major industrial sectors – aerospace and smart phones. The findings highlight that Europe has real opportunity to capture the cloud’s potential, with particular benefit to SME’s as well as new business creation through emerging cloud services.”

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